This wonderful easy chicken recipe is from the brilliant team at the Cookery School at Little Portland Street. The school is one of the best in London for teaching how to cook good, sustainable food, with lasting confidence. Their plethora of single classes include everything from meat & poultry, knife skills, dim sum to bread & sourdough and lots more! The Cookery School also runs successful team building workshops and ‘bake offs’ using the kitchen for collaborative decision making and working together.
We found out that it’s the only culinary school in London that has been awarded 3 stars in sustainability, working with a minimal waste ethos, using organic, local and seasonal produce and carefully selected suppliers to ensure high standards.
This week, they’re covering a classic – Roast Chicken. Now, we know this can sometimes be a tricky one, so this one’s an easy chicken recipe you can follow.

Prep Time | 20 minutes |
Cook Time | 1 hour |
Servings |
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- 1 Whole Chicken about 1.35 kg / 3 lb
- 4 Garlic cloves peeled and crushed
- 1 Large onion peeled and sliced
- 1 Lemon Juiced
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons Dried Oregano or herbes de provence
- Salt and Pepper freshly ground
Ingredients
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- Preheat your oven to 190ºC / 375ºF.
- Prepare the chicken for roasting by removing the gland next to the parson’s nose as this can taint the chicken with an unpleasant oily flavour. Watch the yellow glands. These need to be cut out very carefully. Sometimes there is a plastic bag of innards in the cavity. Remove this too.
- Turn the chicken over on to its breast side. If you look carefully behind the parson’s nose, below the skin you will notice bulging.
- Spread the crushed garlic over the entire surface of the chicken.
- Place the sliced onion in the centre of a roasting tin and put the chicken on top.
- Pour the lemon juice and oil over the chicken.
- Season well with salt and pepper and sprinkle generously with the dried herbs.
- Bake in the oven for about 1 hour or until the juices run clear, i.e. there is no blood when the thigh is pierced with a sharp knife. It is very important to ensure that the chicken is well cooked to avoid any risk of salmonella – better to over-roast than to undercook chicken.
A good and very easy stuffing can be made by chopping apples, dried prunes or apricots, and mixing with fried onion and breadcrumbs. Place the stuffing in the cavity. This will absorb the juices during cooking and taste delicious.